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How do you fall in love with someone you’ve never met?

“We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her,” Te’o said in a statement Wednesday.

That part of his story, at least, is not all that unusual. For people who have not participated in dating websites, or who met their partner in a traditional setting like a party, the notion of online love may be hard to grasp. But many relationships these days develop through the Internet: a 2010 Match.com survey says that 17 percent of couples married in the last three years met online.

“People probably think this never happens,” says Dr. Gail Saltz, a TODAY contributor and psychiatrist who specializes in relationships and sex. “The huge change in our social activity based solely on the Internet has made this a phenomenon that does happen.” …

Still, she said, it is possible for someone to feel in love without ever being in the same room as their beloved, much the way people develop strong crushes on celebrities.

I met my wife online, and we im’d and talked to each other on the phone for hours daily. But, we also met each other in person about a month or two after our initial contact.

Got married less than a year after our initial contact online, been married over seven years now and have four children. We still act like newlyweds. Falling in love online is possible and can last, but there has to be a physical component to it, otherwise it really is all in your head.

Yeah, I just don’t see how he couldn’t have found the money, time or ability to see her in person. Less than two months after meeting online, I got permission from my boss to take a day off so I could hAve an extended weekend to drive eleven hours to see my girlfriend. Took one or two more trips north within the next couple of months and she took two trips south herself, before I packed up and moved to be near her.

If you truly love someone, college and football isn’t going to stop you from seeing them, neither is money. I didn’t have a lot of money at the time to travel, but I did anyway.

I’d think it would be easier. Reality never comes in to shatter the mental picture you have of the person. You never see their faults or annoying behaviors, nothing clouds the image one would have about someone on the interwebs. They in fact, become the perfect soul mate.

In all seriousness, I give a lot of leeway to the young man on this matter and know the absolute truth will likely never come out. It seems bizarre to me, but I’m an old man. That said, even old men know how girls make boys dumb/crazy, and I can only imagine how modern technology can magnify it.

The latest Criminal Minds episode was about something like this.
***spoiler alert***
Dr. Reed (Reid?) fell in love with someone over the phone, then a crazy person who thought a pun about a penrose triangle and pi were on the same level of intellect killed herself and the love interest by shooting herself and the love interest with one pull of the trigger through both of their heads. Didn’t quite understand how that worked, but there you go.